Army in Philippine has killed at least 40 members of the ISIL-affiliated Abu Sayyaf terrorist group and injured 25 others.
Military spokesman, Major Filemon Tan said, casualties occurred in two battlefronts in the country’s southern islands in the first major counter-terrorism operation.
He said 22 militants were killed and 16 others injured in the assaults that began in the jungles of Sulu islands, about 950 km south of capital Manila. In a simultaneous offensive on the nearby island of Basilan, 18 Abu Sayyaf terrorist were killed and nine others wounded, he said.
One Philippine soldier was reportedly killed in the fighting in Sulu. Abu Sayyaf members are in constant clashes with the Philippine forces across the troubled region.